


Just a Couple of Guys Getting Coffee

by shanology



Series: Losing Control [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Male Bonding, Male Friendship, Team Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-17
Updated: 2014-09-17
Packaged: 2018-02-17 19:13:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2320352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shanology/pseuds/shanology
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve encourages Bucky and Clint to hang out together, hoping Clint can understand what Bucky's been through. </p><p>This is just a tiny one-shot I wrote in response to an anon on Tumblr, but it was the setup/inspiration for "Take the Shot", so I'm slotting it in here.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just a Couple of Guys Getting Coffee

**Author's Note:**

> The "Losing Control" series is going to be all about Bucky Barnes rediscovering himself after he returns to Steve's life and joins up with the Avengers. For this series, I'm assuming that Bucky regains all of his memories pretty quickly after the events of Captain America 2 (http://shanology.tumblr.com/post/89136730640/bucky-remembers-everything), but emotionally he's still a mess. In "Losing Control", Bucky's going to be figuring out what he wants and needs, and how to go about getting it.
> 
> Ultimately, what Bucky needs will be Steve, but there will be a lot of hiccups along the way as they both figure that out and come to terms with it. In the meantime, Bucky's going to have some adventures with Clint and Natasha (and maybe others), but when all is said and done, Stucky will triumph. I'm going to try to write each story in such a way that if there's a particular pairing you're just not into, you can skip that installment and not end up too lost.
> 
> Also, my apologies for the fact that this series was written slightly out of order - somehow this started with a Clint/Bucky fic and then I had to backtrack to explain how Bucky ended up in the right mindset to be messing around in a cabin with Clint Barton.

The two men sat awkwardly at the corner table, one sipping plain coffee - black - because it reminded him of the old days, the days that seemed so recent to him but also so far away. The other nursed a steaming hot caramel mocha with extra whipped cream, because dammit, he was secure enough in his masculinity to order whatever tasted good to him. There’d been a few moments of panic when they first arrived, trying to figure out how they could BOTH sit with their backs to the wall and eyes on all the exits, until the corner table opened up. Now they were snuggled almost next to each other - they didn’t know each other, didn’t fully trust each other, but the closeness was still a safer bet than the alternative of turning their backs to the room.

Steve had made them do it. He’d cornered Clint after a meeting at Avengers Tower, asked him to talk to Bucky, to try to get to know him. Clint was the only one who could understand what it meant to have someone else take over your mind, strip your will, and force you to do awful things while your soul screamed in horror. He didn’t talk about his experience with Loki - not to anyone, not to Natasha, not ever - but he’d seen the hollow look in Bucky’s eyes, and he knew what that felt like. He wouldn’t promise to talk, but he promised Steve he’d listen.

Bucky was easier to convince; at this point, he did whatever Steve asked of him. He wanted to make Steve happy; it was pretty much his only goal right now, to erase the sadness that was in Steve’s eyes whenever Bucky glanced up and caught him looking. So Bucky went to get coffee, knowing there was no chance that he’d be talking to this Clint guy about anything, but at least he could tell Steve he’d gone.

The men sat, sipping their drinks and watching the morning crowd flow in and out of the door. Finally, Bucky decided to break the awkward silence…awkwardly. “So, you and Natasha?” he asked.

Clint slowly turned to stare at him. He licked some whipped cream from the edge of his cup before replying, “So, you and Captain Wonderpants?”

There went that topic. Bucky took another sip of his coffee and wondered how long he had to sit here for it to count as “trying” in Steve’s book. He figured he had to at least finish his drink, so he waded in again. “You’re an archer?”

This time, at least, Clint just raised an eyebrow. “And you’re a sniper. Guess we both prefer our distance.”

Bucky flinched at that, because while Bucky had been a sniper, the Winter Soldier had killed by any means necessary - far away, or close-up and bloody. A normal man wouldn’t have caught the reaction, but he knew Barton was no normal man, and felt like he had to respond. “We don’t always get what we prefer,” he muttered.

Clint was tired of dancing around - the drink was good, but he hated coffee shops and he wanted this over with and it was obvious Bucky was a champion from the Clint Barton school of Not Talking About Things. So he broke his own rule and just jumped in. “I’d prefer not to remember attacking my friends.”

There. He’d laid it on the table, and Bucky finally lifted his gaze from his coffee and looked at Clint - actually looked at him, instead of through him or past him. He tried, “I’d prefer not being so weak that I couldn’t fight it. That they could make me do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, and I couldn’t break free. I was too weak.”

And there it was. The reason Clint had never talked about this, with anyone - because nobody would understand. Nobody except, maybe, this man sharing a table with him. “Natasha wouldn’t have been weak. Steve wouldn’t have been weak. They would have fought harder. They would have been able to resist it.”

Bucky nodded once, slowly, in agreement. Everyone could argue all they wanted that nobody could have resisted Hydra’s manipulations, but Bucky would always believe that Steve could have. That a stronger, better man could have fought harder, done something, not given in. And it was out there now, and it was a relief, just hearing it from someone else’s mouth.

He looked away, back at the crowd. There was nothing more to be said on that topic. He and Clint understood each other, completely, and wasn’t that unexpected? They sat in silence for a few minutes more, but this time it was companionable, not awkward. Then Bucky added, with a nod of his head towards the customer placing an order, “I would prefer men not wear socks with sandals. When in the hell did that become okay?”

Clint laughed, ready to play this game. “I would prefer the cashier stop looking at us like we’re plotting to kill everyone in this place. Not that we couldn’t - we could, and I’m guessing it would take us less than a minute. But we’re not actually plotting it.” Clint glared at a businessman who’d rudely elbowed a co-ed aside to cut in line, adding, “Yet,” and Bucky burst out laughing.

That was how Steve found them - Clint glaring, and Bucky grinning like he’d just been handed free tickets to the game. He hadn’t seen Bucky smile like that since 1942.


End file.
